My Flower
by katieerudite
Summary: Her story is not the same as you believe. Every bit has been twisted beyond recognition, landing her as the antagonist. Gothel is not who she seems.
1. Chapter 1

I never thought of myself as evil. Never! She was my life source, but I wasn't really keeping her up in that tower...oh. The tower, that's what is making you avoid me.

Well, the tower wasn't intended to be a prison, it was just the cheapest on the market. And pretty remote. I've always been a bit of an introvert myself.

I bet you've deducted who I am exactly. FIne, I'm Gothel. Rapunzel called me Mother, and others had the audacity to do the same. Even you probably do. And you hate me for what I did to "poor little Rapunzel."

Well, stories get twisted in the telling.

So here is my side. Judge if you'd like, but hear me out.

It all started about a thousand years ago on a hillside. I found a little gold flower growing out of the rocky soil.

I had a large garden back then, and sang to each of my little flowers. So I sang to this one, just to get it growing stronger.

To my surprise, it began to glow.

What came next is a feeling I struggle to explain. I could literally feel the years lifting from my face.

I came back the next day, and the next, and the next. Soon, I became addicted to the flower's magic, as many other fairies do to other variations of magic.

That's right, I am a fairy. Most fairies don't actually have big wings or wands or tiny feet. The only way you can tell is by our hair. It never calms down, always wild.

Fortunately, most humans are ignorant to that fact. And many others, as I have found.

So when the king's men came and took my flower, I was furious. But I soon learned where it was. A little girl, the princess, had been born with long golden hair.

I knew that for centuries, all of the royal family and their extended family were brunettes.

I had to get the hair. I needed the magic, even just a small piece!

So I snuck into the castle one night. There lay the little princess. She gurgled at me and pulled a piece of hair stuck in her fist.

I began to sing to her, softly, so I wouldn't break the small sleeping spell I had performed on the nurse.

Her hair glowed. I closed my eyes as centuries of age lifted from my body.

Then I pulled out a pair of scissors, selected the lightest part, and cut it with a single snip.

I turned to go, and realised that the lock I was holding had turned brown! I knelt over her cradle to perform a spell that would allow me to take a piece without it leaving its power with the girl or dispersing.

I blew a small handful of powder in her face, part of the ritual. She giggle at the sparkles, then sneezed.

The nurse woke up and screamed. Guards ran in.

Then I panicked. I grabbed the child and ran.


	2. Chapter 2

I ducked into a small cavern to hide the little girl from prying eyes on the main road. I heard the clanking of the Guards' armour and pressed into the back of the cave.

To my surprise, it didn't end, and I eventually fell backwards into a patch of sunlit grass.

The little girl, Rapunzel, as you may have gathered, started crying. I hushed her as quickly as possible, blowing a small spell to put her back to sleep.

I turned around to see a huge tower covered in creeping vines and a little old man, barely up to my knee, waddling towards me.

"Want the tower?" he grinned with a mouth as full of teeth as he hobbled up.

I pulled the bag of money from my side. "How much?"

"50 pieces."

"Done."

In a minute, he was hobbling away to the entrance, jungling his new coins. As I said, cheapest on the market.

So I went to the little door and opened it. I was confronted with hundreds of spiraling stairs. I sighed and stepped on the first one. Then the next.

I went all the way up. I kept expecting a room in the middle, but there wasn't until I reached the top.

A little two story apartment.

I set her down and got to work cleaning.

That tiny man had made the tower into a pigsty.

I set up a room for the little girl and one for myself, using magic to create things that I could not find in the closet full of stuff.

When I put her down on the bed, Rapunzel stared up at the blank ceiling and laughed. I cracked a grin and began to sing, patting the top of her head.

I could feel the life pouring into me like water filling a glass. And like water, it gave me life. I could feel my joints becoming less arthritic and my wrinkles smoothed. I smiled.

This girl was my flower, and I couldn't bring her back.

Now, lest you think I am a kidnapper or abductor, I will tell you this. The punishment for kidnapping a child was death. Only if you got caught.

If I brought her back I would be arrested for kidnapping, even if I said that I had only found her in the woods alone.

See, I'm not the bad guy here.

But she grew up. I thought they would stop looking but they never did. So I couldn't let her out.

She couldn't cut her hair either. And as soon as it was long enough to use as a rope, I closed off the staircase. That way no one else could get in while I was away.

But someone did.


	3. Chapter 3

"Rapunzel dear!" I called, and she ran down the stairs.

Her hair was nearly 70 feet long on that day. It was only a few days from her birthday. I knew she would want to leave. She just...couldn't.

"I'm leaving now! What do you want for your birthday?"

"Well, it's something I've wanted for a _really_ long time, like forever…" she started mumbling.

"Rapunzel!" I hated mumbling, "Enough with the mumbling! You know I hate it, always whispering under your breath." It made me feel like the person was keeping something from me. "Just tell me."

"Well," she started, then rushed, "Iwanttoseethefloatinglights!"

"What?" How was I supposed to understand that! I'm thousands of years old!

She took a deep breath. "I want to see the floating lights." She rocked back and forth nervously, fiddling with her hands.

I paused. She couldn't leave. I would be caught. Someone would recognise her, she would lead them here, and I would be arrested and ultimately beheaded. Though I am a fairy and relatively immortal, I can be killed by an iron sword, the weapon of choice for the king's guard.

I thought fast. "Oh you mean the stars!"

She sighed. "No." She started again, then gulped.

Rapunzel swung her hair, my treasure, up into the rafters and hoisted herself up to the mantle of the fireplace.

I winced. I didn't like how she literally hung around the apartment in the tower.

With a flourish, she exposed the wall behind a red curtain. She sank down into a kneel longingly.

She was always overdramatic.

"These lights, they always,_ only_, appear on my birthday, every year, since I can remember. They're not just the stars." She gestured at the ceiling, where a huge star chart dominated the ceiling like Michelangelo's in the Vatican. "I've charted the stars...and these are nothing like them. They are only on my birthday!"

I sighed. _Think! Think!_ I commanded myself. "Ever heard of meteor showers?" I said. Probably a bit sarcastically, and maybe mean, but you see, she was keeping me from going! I had to get there and back before the enforced curfew.

"Mother." She gave me a stink eye.

"Rapunzel come here."

I led her to the mirror. "You know what I see?"

"A mirror."

"I see a confident, beautiful young woman."

She smiled. Then I pointed at my own reflection, talking to it, "Oh look, you're here too!"

Rapunzel looked deflated. But I had no time to fix that.

I kissed her on both cheeks and went to the door.

Still sad, she looped her beautiful locks over the hook by the window that I had put in years before.

I looked into her eyes. "I love you very much." I hoped she would read my emotions, but she only helped me over the ledge.

"I love you more." She again avoided my eyes.

"I love you most." And she lowered me from the ledge and into the green grass below.

Now, I always hate to leave after something like that, but I had no choice. As I said before, I was on a deadline.

Still, don't judge me. And keep listening. I'm not done.


End file.
